Analysis of temperature rise induced by high-intensity focused ultrasound in tissue-mimicking gel considering cavitation bubbles

High-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) causes a selective temperature rise in tissue and is used as a noninvasive method for tumor treatment. However, there is a problem in that it typically takes several hours to treat a large tumor. The development of a highly efficient method is required to shorten the treatment time. It is known that cavitation bubbles generated by HIFU enhance HIFU heating. In this study, the enhancement of the heating effect by cavitation was estimated in a numerical simulation solving a bio-heat transfer equation (BHTE) by increasing the absorption coefficients in and out of the volume of cavitation bubbles. The absorption coefficients were obtained by a curve fitting the temperature rise near the focal point between experiment and simulation. The results show that cavitation bubbles caused the increase in ultrasonic absorption not only in but also near the volume of cavitation bubbles.